ایجاد یک فرهنگ از آسپیراسیون: آموزش عالی، سرمایه انسانی و تغییرات اجتماعی

In the United States, developing human capital for both economic and social benefits is an idea as old as the nation itself and led to the world's first mass higher education system. Now most other nations are racing to expand access to universities and colleges and to expand their role in society. Higher education will grow markedly in its importance for building a culture of aspiration and, in turn, the formation of human capital, the promotion of social economic mobility, and for determining national economic competitiveness. This essay briefly discusses the vital role of human capital for national economies, past and future. It also examines the public and private benefits of higher education, the effort of nation-states, and region, to build a culture of aspiration, and the convergence of approaches towards building a “Structured Opportunity Market” in higher education. Increasingly institutions and developed and developing nations, and, in some cases, supranational entities such as the European Union, will move to most if not all of the components of the Structure Opportunity Market; those that don’t will be compelled to offer in both domestic and international forums a rational reason why they are not adopting some aspects of the model. The paper concludes with a few observations on the emerging and growing higher education system in China.

In the United States, developing human capital for both economic and social benefits is an idea as old as the nation itself. And within the US, the state of California was particularly early in not only recognizing this fundamental truth; it was the first to develop a coordinated network of colleges and universities to push access to higher education. But it was not until the 1960s that economists began to offer significant analyses of its key role in economic development. Garry Becker and T.W. Schultz famously offered evidence that more than 30% of the increased per-capita income between the 1930s and the 1960s was attributable to increased schooling, and that investment in a collegeeducated workforce provided a greater rate of return than any other single investment, such as machinery. They also predicted that the private rate of return for an individual of attending and graduating from college would grow substantially when compared to those who attained only a high school diploma.ii The work of Becker and Schultz, and others, spawned a significant body of economic research on human capital formation and the role of education in the US economy, with increasing interest in the link of investment in higher education with technological innovation. A 1999 study by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz estimated that during the last century about a quarter of US growth in income per worker was due to the rise in educational attainment.iii Similarly, David

Globalization, supranational entities, and international frameworks, such as the European Union and the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), are tugging at the once dominant role of nation-states in shaping political culture and institutions. Yet nations remain the most significant influence on the extent and vibrancy of educational institutions, particularly in more advanced economies that owe much of their present position to previous investment rates in education. The nation-state is not dead yet; indeed, its resilience or transformation into regional alliances may surprise globalists